Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West

Front Cover
University of Pennsylvania Press, Jan 29, 1998 - Business & Economics - 600 pages

In 1961 Georges Duby wrote what is still the best overview of European medieval rural history to date. Originally published in French and first translated into English in 1968, Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West brings together local research on the countryside and its economic life and distills from it lessons that apply much more widely. With this edition, the University of Pennsylvania Press brings this modern classic back into print.

 

Contents

Preface to the English Edition
xix
Land and Labour 5
xxii
How Many Men Were There? II
11
Agricultural Practices
22
Wealth and Society The Manorial Economy
28
Farming the Demesne
37
Differences in manorial structure
47
The Great Estate and the Peasant Economy
54
Peasant Indebtedness and its Effects
252
The Exploitation
260
Conclusion Peasants and the Manor on the Eve of the XIV
279
Introduction
289
The Depopulation of the Countryside
298
An Interpretation
305
The Decay of the Manorial Economy
312
Fixed Payments
327

XIXIII CENTURIES THE RHYTHM AND LIMITS OF EXPANSION
61
The Enlargement of the Ancient Village Territories
72
The Settlement of the Intervening Spaces
81
Work in the Fields
88
Yields
99
Agricultural Expansion and the Structure of Society
113
Demographic Growth
119
The Growth of Exchange and its Effects
126
The Corn Trade
134
Products of Forest and Pasture
141
Commercial Growth and Social Development
150
The Village Community and the Entrepreneurs
156
BOOK III XIXIII CENTURIES THE MANOR AND THE RURAL ECONOMY
169
Lay Fortunes
182
Lords and Peasants in the XI and XII Centuries
197
The Exploitation of Men
220
Evolution of Feudal
232
Fines on Transfers of Property
239
The Rich and the Poor
336
Peasants and Traders
345
B THE Polyptyques
366
REGIONAL DIFFERENCES
374
F THE FATE OF LAY WEALTH
382
B THE EXTENSION OF THE CULTIVATED AREA
391
WIDENING OF EXCHANGE ACTIVITIES
409
The Manor XIXII Centuries
428
B PEASANT TENURE IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY
437
PRIVILEGED MONOPOLIES The Ban
446
E RENTALS AND CUSTUMALS
457
F THE MANORIAL STEWARDS
472
B THE MANAGEMENT OF THE DEMESNE
495
THE CONDITION OF THE PEASANTS
503
B MANORIAL FARMING
528
PEASANT BONDAGE
544
Glossary
554
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About the author (1998)

Georges Duby (1919-1996) was one of the foremost medievalists and a prolific author. His many books include The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined, The Chivalrous Society, History Continues, and The Age of Cathedrals: Art and Society, 980-1420.

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